This is no time for men who oppose Gotabaya methods to keep silent

Letters to Editor

By A. Senevirathna from Dehiwala

(May 11, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The line between investigation and persecuting is a very fine one and Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajakase has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind as between the internal and the external threat of Tiger terrorism.We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.... We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular.

This is no time for men who oppose Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajakase methods to keep silent. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom of Tamil people, but we cannot defend national freedom or sovereignty deserting it in our hearts and soul.

"The actions of the Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajakase have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies for their propaganda against Sri Lanka. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."